A visit to Breakthrough Restaurant along Villa beach is always filled with gastronomic memories - from their extensive line up of the freshest seafood to mouth watering meat dishes like lechon baboy. And of course there's this fish called managat.
Usually it is sold by the kilo, as guests can choose from the display of fishes they have at the counter. Tucked in a corner are these managat which you can choose according to size and price per kilo.
They are usually served in two ways; the head and upper body part usually is sinabawan (cooked in broth with vegetables) and the tail and lower body part sinugba (grilled).
Though it is not only Breakthrough that serves managat, but I have to highlight this popular restaurant since most online articles mentioned this seaside restaurant.
And most of the photos I have for this fish came from Breakthrough, a testament of it's popularity, both the resto and the fish.
They are usually served in two ways; the head and upper body part usually is sinabawan (cooked in broth with vegetables) and the tail and lower body part sinugba (grilled).
Though it is not only Breakthrough that serves managat, but I have to highlight this popular restaurant since most online articles mentioned this seaside restaurant.
And most of the photos I have for this fish came from Breakthrough, a testament of it's popularity, both the resto and the fish.
From the article entitled Country Cooking : Iloilo’s prized fish and specialties by Micky Fenix published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
The restaurant name seems odd for a Filipino place fronting the beach. But the “breakthrough” is how the owner introduced fish to the menu. Raymundo Robles said that the managat (mangrove jack) was considered a pest because it ate bangus fingerlings. But Robles, working then as a marine biologist with Seafdec (Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center), said he liked the taste and texture of the managat and encouraged fish farms to culture it. The managat’s milky quality, whether cooked as sinigang or grilled, has made it the prized fish it is today.
The managat was extra fatty and everything we ate was fat, actually. The imbaw, huge clams, had the fat blown like a balloon. And then the diwal or angel wing clam had more meat and a lot more fat. At least I know now when the season for fatty shellfish is in Iloilo. When I used to ask before, everyone would answer this and that month. I never suspected it to be in the summer.
Breakthrough claims to be the first to make the local managat (red snapper) a favorite among diners with its meaty, soft and fat flesh.
The managat was once considered a pest because it ate precious milkfish fingerlings in fishponds, but the marine biologist in Robles decided it was time for diners to consider the flavorful fish – now an expensive delicacy that he cultures.
The managat experience becomes unforgettable when one dips the fish in the Ilonggo vinegar-based sauce called sinamak – a tangy concoction of ginger, garlic, the ginger-like langkauas (scientific name Alpinia galangal Swartz), and kutitot (Philippine jalapeno or siling labuyo)
